


The Photo Album

by lapsed-bookworm (queerlybeloved777)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Based on a Pillowfort Post, Castiel and Dean Winchester Reunion, Dean Winchester Dies, Dean Winchester and Castiel Need to Work Things Out, Dean Winchester in Heaven, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester - Freeform, Fix-It, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Other, Playwriting, Script Format, The Hunters Are A Family, The Mechanics of Heaven
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:15:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27658712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queerlybeloved777/pseuds/lapsed-bookworm
Summary: BOBBY: Don't forget to check the glove box. The photo album will be in there.DEAN sticks his hand through the passenger window and the glove box's door flips down, revealing a brown leather book - worn around the edges, newspaper clippings sticking out of it, and tied shut just like JOHN's journal.DEAN: It's just Dad's journal.BOBBY: Well, they do look unique to each of us.DEAN frowns and opens the book. On the inside cover, there are dark red symbols and lines forming a symbol of protection. SAM's handwriting scrawls along the bottom - December 25th, 2020. SW.DEAN: Wait -- December?BOBBY: Time don't pass the same up here.
Relationships: Bobby Singer & Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Sam Winchester & Others
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	The Photo Album

**Author's Note:**

> Based on an exchange in the comments made viewable in [this Pillowfort post](https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/1885820/). Cross-posted to [Tumblr](https://lapsed-bookworm.tumblr.com/post/635422704757014528/archive-warning-major-character-death-rating-g). The formatting is more reminiscent of playwriting than screenwriting (no camera shot notes, internal perceptions haven’t been translated to a voice over, limited scenery description, etc.). The two slashes [//] at the end of a line and the beginning of the next indicate overlapping dialogue. Please see the end notes for a breakdown of the canon compliance vs non-compliance.

DEAN stands and sets the bottle of beer on the cooler. BOBBY speaks as DEAN walks around THE IMPALA, inspecting a copy of her, sitting in Heaven.

BOBBY: Don't forget to check the glove box.

DEAN: Hmm?

BOBBY: The photo album will be in there.

DEAN (scoffs): Photo album.

DEAN sticks his hand through the passenger window and the glove box's door flips down, revealing a brown leather book - worn around the edges, newspaper clippings sticking out of it, and tied shut just like JOHN's journal.

DEAN: It's just Dad's journal.

BOBBY: Well, they do look unique to each of us.

DEAN frowns and opens the book. On the inside cover, there are dark red symbols and lines forming a symbol of protection. SAM's handwriting scrawls along the bottom - December 25th, 2020. SW.

DEAN: Wait -- December?

BOBBY: Time don't pass the same up here.

DEAN flips through the first few pages. It is not JOHN's journal filled with monsters and lore, but a photo album like BOBBY said. A pyre lit in the background with EILEEN and more hunters blurred, out of focus for the image. A simple notation in SAM's handwriting - _Dean's funeral_ \- was surrounded by runes that revealed details on the page if DEAN touched them. _Donna was in the house, making sandwiches and not letting herself cry around Sam. Jody was hugging Garth, who had brought his wife and kids (and most of his pack). Jack was unable to make it because he was a hands-off type of god, but Sam was sure he could feel a presence of sorts in the breeze as the lighter hit the first section of the pyre and the flames went up without difficulty. A trench coat had been laid over Dean, in a nod to Cas, because Sam didn't think a bottle of beer left out for him would actually be left alone. Not today._

A person laid out on a morgue's table with an empty space in their chest where a heart should've been - _Last case._ MIRACLE running through the yard of a house that DEAN didn't recognize while SAM and EILEEN carried in a few boxes from THE IMPALA - _Move in day with Eileen!_ A small Christmas tree sits on a coffee table, and snow falls through a window. Stockings for SAM, EILEEN, and MIRACLE are hung from the windowsill because the mantle is taken up with pictures of loved ones already in Heaven; a bottle of beer sits next to a candid photo of DEAN from the bunker, smiling and laughing. It was no feast worthy of MRS. BUTTERS, but SAM and EILEEN are enjoying a spread of takeout - _First Christmas._ DEAN shuts the book quickly and blinks furiously.

BOBBY: It gets easier.

DEAN grunts noncommittally.

BOBBY: It's so you're ready when he comes.

DEAN drops the book on the passenger seat and shuts the door to the glove box a little more forcefully than necessary, walks around THE IMPALA a little faster than necessary, and takes a little more time getting situated in the driver's seat than was strictly necessary. BOBBY takes a sip of his beer.

DEAN: I'm going for a drive.

DEAN pauses, unsure of how to tell how long he'd be out driving now that, well, time was all Heaven-y. BOBBY nods and raises his beer in acknowledgement.

BOBBY: Karen's making meatloaf. When you get back, we'll have Mary and your dad over for dinner.

DEAN can't think of anything to say. He had never met BOBBY's wife, and he still wasn't used to the idea of MARY and JOHN living together. Heaven was something, alright, but he had just arrived. DEAN turns the key, the engine of THE IMPALA roars to life, and "Carry On Wayward Son" by KANSAS starts to play.

DEAN (to himself): Atta Baby.

DEAN maneuvers down the dirt driveway until he hits the road, turns left, and drives, letting the calm of heading somewhere settle over him. The road twists and turns around hills, and the trees block out the sun at just the sweet spot of driving late in the afternoon and before the sun starts to set. It's just him - no leaf-peepers crawling along at a snail's pace and causing a line. It's familiar. It turns out that BOBBY was right - time doesn't flow quite the same in Heaven. His guts tells him that he should have a quarter of a tank left, but the gauge hasn't moved. DEAN still pulls over at a gas station, goes through the motions of filling her up, and idly reads the sign of the nearby diner.

DEAN: Anyone wanna try the sweet potato fries? That counts as your rabbit food - right, Sammy?

DEAN turns to THE IMPALA and freezes. It's empty. He glances around, relieved that no one's stepping forward as a witness or asking questions. DEAN sits in the driver's seat for a moment. He looks at the photo album sitting innocently on the passenger seat. He carefully opens it and thumbs a few pages beyond the Christmas photo. A room in soft pastel green with a crib with a chubby baby in yellow - _He's named Dean!_ A photo of JACK surrounded by flowers - _Eileen didn't think it was very funny to exchange presents on God's birthday._ A photo of SAM and ANNIE in graduation gowns and caps; she has finished a nursing degree, while he has finished library science - _Graduation. Only took 20 years, give or take._ A boy around seven or eight proudly holding up a fish next to DONNA on a riverbank - _Dean's first fish._ SAM correcting his son's paper of practiced sigils and symbols, a paper with shaky pencil spelling out CASTIEL in Enochian, SAM's son carefully using a brush to apply his first ward to the doorway of his bedroom.

DEAN (muttering): Shit-shit-shit --

DEAN's eyes squeeze shut. Oh, it hurts. Worse than when he got impaled through the fucking chest. His baby brother is living, has a son named after him, is happy, and some sort of hunter librarian. It was everything Sam could've hoped for, really. DEAN swipes the tears away from his eyes. He knew on a certain level that he'd always go out in the midst of hunting, like their relatives, friends of the family - really, their Hunter family. It was what he was best at and what he was always going to do. No heart attacks from the cholesterol in all that red meat, not for him. It was an echo-y sort of hurt. DEAN could feel it, but he didn't feel consumed by it like he was treading water in a wave that was threatening to engulf him. He drops the open book on the passenger's seat and starts THE IMPALA. Maybe it wouldn't hurt as much by the time he got back to BOBBY's place.

A low voice from the backseat makes DEAN jump.

CASTIEL: It's rather difficult to find you when you keep moving in Heaven.

DEAN (quietly): Fuck!

CASTIEL: That was the tradeoff to restructuring the layout and allowing for more of a collaborative expanse --

DEAN: How long have you been....Um...?

CASTIEL: Time is an irrelevant means of reference in Heaven, Dean. I'm sure Bobby has already informed you of this.

DEAN: Yeah, yeah; time is fake. How long have you been, um, out of - you know - The Empty?

CASTIEL (dryly): Longer than a wing beat.

DEAN: Is this some sort of heaven-hallucination, or something?

CASTIEL: I'm not sure that's correct usage of hallucination in this case //

DEAN: // C'mon, Cas. (Beat.) Please.

CASTIEL: Jack needed to make some deep changes to the power supply of Heaven. There were so many Fallen Angels, and so many posts left unmanned, and a godly presence alone wasn't quite enough to stabilize Heaven while being restructured.

DEAN: Are you...back?

CASTIEL: I - I am restricted to Heaven. I cannot intercede in any requests from hunters below, if that's what you mean.

DEAN: This is all just a lot, right now.

DEAN glances down at the book. CASTIEL leans forward to look at it as well. Neither of them speaks, but THE IMPALA's radio starts up again, playing a snippet of the prior song:

There'll be peace when you are done  
Lay your weary head to rest  
Don't you cry no more

CASTIEL: Have you visited that place with the barbeque onion ring cheeseburger?

DEAN: That's gotta be an 11 hour drive. You know, in distance, or whatever.

CASTIEL: We have the time.

DEAN: What if I miss...?

DEAN and CASTIEL look at the photo album. It's remained open on the seat, but the photo has changed. GARTH's son and SAM's son are holding hands and wearing color-coordinated blue suits. They look happy, but still awkward in a teenager posing for a parent sort of way - _Dean and Robbie's first prom._

CASTIEL (gently): It's okay. (Pause.) We'll know when Sam arrives.

END

**Author's Note:**

> Canon compliant for s15e20: Pretty much up until the driving in heaven and Sam's life montage (aka Dean's death and going to heaven). It's believed that the dark haired woman on the porch is Eileen, and due to Dean Jr's anti-possession tattoo, it's reasonable to believe that Sam taught some degree of hunting knowledge to his son. Cas somehow helps Jack with the restructuring of Heaven; it's not clear if he provided the idea or is somewhere in Heaven.
> 
> Generally canon compliant: Bobby's wife, Karen, is mentioned. Annie did become a nursing assistant and could've continued her nursing education. While I can't remember how many times waves of hunters have been killed off, I did mention several who were alive at the end - Donna, Jody, and Garth.
> 
> Not canon compliant: I believe Garth's children were referred to in passing, but I don't think any names were given. Any food and diner references that were adlibbed here. The details of how Cas helped Jack and whether Cas is in Heaven (or remains in The Empty), along with Cas actually meeting with Dean in Heaven. Any references to Dean Jr knowing anyone outside of Sam and his mother. Obviously, the photo album as a way for Dean to keep up with loved ones on Earth. The Hunter Funeral with, you know, other hunters there with Sam because This Is A Family.


End file.
